Lee County has more registered voters heading into the Nov. 3 election than it did before the last midterm. The Virginia Department of Elections counted 15,985 registered voters in the county on Oct. 1, 2026. That is 511 more than on Oct. 1, 2022, a rise of about 3.3%.
The figures come from The Lee Daily Register’s reading of the department’s registrant counts by locality, which it posts each month on its 2026 registration statistics page and the matching 2022 page. Of this year’s total, 15,173 voters are listed as active and 812 as inactive.
A slower climb than the state’s
Statewide, the same files show registration growing faster, from 6,045,153 voters on Oct. 1, 2022, to 6,467,337 this year, an increase of about 7%. Lee County’s Oct. 1 counts over the same years:
| Count date | Registered voters in Lee County |
|---|---|
| Oct. 1, 2020 | 15,329 |
| Oct. 1, 2022 | 15,474 |
| Oct. 1, 2024 | 15,815 |
| Oct. 1, 2025 | 15,822 |
| Oct. 1, 2026 | 15,985 |
This year’s figure is the highest Oct. 1 count in the department’s files for 2020 through 2026. It is not the peak, though. The county briefly passed 16,000 after the 2024 presidential election, reaching 16,057 in the Dec. 2, 2024 count, before dropping to 15,810 by Feb. 1, 2025.
The state’s monthly locality report shows what moved the rolls between January and September. It lists 475 new registrations, 72 re-registrations and 122 transfers in as additions. On the other side, it subtracts 291 voters in its deceased column, 99 transfers out and 71 in its out-of-state column. For the same nine months of 2022, the report listed 428 new registrations and 167 deceased removals.
These numbers stop at Sept. 30. As of Oct. 27, the latest files on the department’s site are dated Oct. 1, so they do not reflect registrations processed in October, the month of the county’s Oct. 23 deadline.
Why there is no early-vote count here yet
Readers may want to know how many Lee County residents have already voted. The state does track absentee applications and ballots in a file called the Daily Absentee List. But its client services page offers that list for purchase, subject to eligibility, and The Lee Daily Register found no free county-level early-vote tally on the department’s results and statistics pages as of Oct. 27. The Lee County registrar’s page lists dates and hours but no count.
The last midterm offers a yardstick. In November 2022, 5,746 Lee County voters cast ballots, according to the department’s official 2022 turnout statistics for the county. Of those, 729 voted early in person and 291 voted absentee by mail. Another 17 mail ballots, postmarked by Election Day and received by noon that Friday, were processed after the election.
Together that is 1,037 ballots, or about 18% of the total. The other 4,709 voters went to their precincts on Election Day. By our calculation, the total turnout equaled about 37% of the 15,578 voters on the rolls in the state’s Nov. 1, 2022 count.
If you have not voted yet
This year’s ballot includes races for U.S. Senate and the U.S. House and proposed amendments to the Virginia Constitution, plus mayor and council races for voters who live in Jonesville or Pennington Gap. Our guide to the Nov. 3 ballot lists the candidates. The county registrar’s early voting notice and voter information sheet set out the remaining steps:
- Vote early in person at the General Registrar’s Office, 133 School Board Place in Jonesville, weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The last day is Saturday, Oct. 31, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. State law ends early voting at 5 p.m. on the Saturday before the election.
- Return a mail ballot to the drop box in the registrar’s office, which the county’s voter sheet places in the office’s middle building, or to a drop box at any polling place on Election Day. A ballot sent by mail counts if it is postmarked by Nov. 3 and reaches the registrar by noon on Friday, Nov. 6, under the state’s absentee voting rules. Voters can check whether their ballot arrived through the state’s Citizen Portal.
- Vote on Election Day at your regular polling place, open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Anyone in line at 7 p.m. may vote. The county’s notice puts it plainly: “Do not get out of line.”
The county’s deadlines to register and to request a mail ballot both passed on Oct. 23. Eligible residents who are not registered still have an option. Under Virginia’s same-day registration, they can register and cast a provisional ballot at the registrar’s office during early voting, or at the polling place for the precinct where they live on Election Day. Voters facing a hospitalization, illness or other emergency can apply for an emergency absentee ballot until 2 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2.
Questions go to the registrar’s office at (276) 346-7780. Counting does not end on election night, since mailed ballots can arrive until noon on Nov. 6. The Lee County Electoral Board has scheduled its canvass and review of provisional ballots for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at the registrar’s office, with further sessions listed through Nov. 13, some only if needed.
